In The Midnight Hour
by sherwhotreksings
Summary: A night of drinking and college party games leads to something Erin wishes she could forget, but can't. Or Patty finds out that Holtzmann never played any of the classic drinking games while she was in college and quickly rectifies that in one giant mash up. Erin is flustered by everything Holtz does and it makes her grumpy because she can't figure her out.


_A/N: I figured I'd give you all a break from my angsty fics for this one. Dedicated to Kate MF EMMY WINNER Mckinnon. On tumblr as Madquerade, come join me!_

It's unusual that the Ghostbusters don't know what to do with their freetime. They had a movie night yesterday, their favorite bar is closed for remodeling, and none of the girls are feeling particularly adventurous when it comes to trying a new place.

Holtzmann swirls her second beer around, watching the little bubbles float in the mini vortex. "We should play a drunk game."

"What are we, in college again?" Erin mocks from the other side of the couch, nursing her first glass of red wine. Normally she'd jump at the chance to play a drunk game, but tonight she just wanted to get stupid drunk by herself in her room, more specifically not around Holtzmann.

She's had a lot of thoughts these past few months, but none more so vexing than Holtzmann. She doesn't understand why her thoughts are constantly occupied by the blonde scientist. She doesn't understand why Holtzmann fascinates her so much. She doesn't understand how she can watch Holtzmann all day and never get tired of cataloguing the little things she does with her mouth as she works. She isn't used to not knowing things, so it's rather infuriating that she can't figure out the enigma that is Dr. Jillian Holtzmann.

"I dunno. I've never played one before. Child genius and all." She downs the last few sips and sets the bottle down on the table, spinning it and wiggling her eyebrows as it lands on Erin.

"You've never played a drinking game?" Patty asks incredulously.

"I know _how_ to play the normal ones. I've just never played them." Holtz messes with her glasses, sliding them up and down her nose, and watching the way the world changes color with each shift.

Erin stares, transfixed by the way the shadows from Jillian's glasses dance across her face, and gulps down another mouthful of wine.

"Oh we are playing them _all_ tonight and we are getting WASTED!" Patty shouts excitedly, racing into the kitchen to pull the best bottles of alcohol.

"I don't know guys, it might not be the best idea to get that drunk," Abby states, always the worrier about hangovers combined with possibly working the next day.

"Nah, it'll be fun. Won't it Erin?" Holtz locks eyes, catching Erin in the act of staring.

"Y-yeah, I guess so. I mean, why wouldn't it be?" she stutters. She has a million and one reasons why it might not be fun, all of them starting with Holtz- and ending with -mann.

At least if she has to sit through truth or dare, she'll have some hard liquor to go with it.

Patty returns a few minutes later with 6 different types of alcohol, shot glasses, a jenga tower, and soda for people who want to make it a bit more interesting. "Let me just-" She reaches past Holtzmann to grab her empty beer bottle.

Holtzmann grins like a maniac, clearly ready to get trashed.

Something they both have in common.

Maybe this'll be good for Erin. Maybe this will give her some sort of insight to how Holtz's brain works. Maybe it's her own brain she needs to figure out and not Holtz's, not that she'd admit that.

Patty snaps Erin back to reality as she starts to explain how to play her game. "Since Holtzy has never played a single drunk game, I thought we'd play them all tonight in one big mashup. When it's your turn, you pick truth or dare. If you choose dare, you pull a block from the jenga tower and do whatever it says, no matter what. Don't worry, there's nothing illegal on them. If you collapse the tower, you have to do a double shot. If you choose truth, you spin the bottle and the person it lands on gets to ask you a question, _but_ if you decide you don't want to answer the question, you take a shot and leave the room, and we get to decide whether you get slapped or kissed by the person the bottle landed on.

"Since it's just us ladies, should we maybe leave that part out?" Erin shifts her eyes nervously to Holtzmann, only to find she's already looking at her.

Patty lets out a roar of laughter. "I don't have a problem kissing anyone here-"

"Neither do I!" Abby interrupts.

"-and I _know_ Holtzmann doesn't. It's part of the fun! Unless you have a problem…"

Erin blushes at the thought of Holtzmann kissing someone, specifically her, and takes a few deep breaths to try and cool her face off. "N-no, I don't. There's n-no problem." She chugs the last one third of her wine. "Let's do this. Who goes first?"

Everyone gathers around the jenga tower set up on the floor, Erin across from Holtz, and Abby across from Patty.

"Holtzmann, I believe you have the honor?" Patty instructs Holtzmann to go.

She grins, swiveling from side to side to look at everyone before shouting, "Dare!"

She wiggles her fingers, thinking about where to pull a brick from before selecting one fairly close to the bottom of the tower, carefully extracting it.

Erin can't help but notice how nimble her fingers are, and that gets her thinking about other things that agility would be good for. She turns around and grabs a can of fanta, popping the tab, and pouring it into a tumbler, aggressively mixing in several shots of vodka.

"Ooh, Erin's getting wild," Abby says through a laugh. "Holtzmann, what does your dare say?"

"Speak in another language until your next turn."

Abby raises an eyebrow. "What if you don't know another language?"

"Then you'd take a shot and not speak until your next turn," Patty answers.

"Heureusement, je parle français," Holtzmann smirks.

"You speak French?" Erin's mouth falls open. It surprises her, but it makes perfect sense that such a smart and talented woman knows a second language.

Patty and Abby both talk at the same time, directed at Erin, in shock because of how bad her spanish is. " _You_ speak french?"

"Uh, yeah. I picked it up in college after high school spanish. I'm more interested in Holtzmann though," then realizing how that sounded, "I mean, in when she learned French."

"Oui, depuis j'avais dix ans!" Holtzmann says excitedly.

"Erin, what did she say?" Abby asks as Patty pulls out her phone to verify Erin's translation.

"She's been speaking it since she was 10." Erin rings her hands subtly. It's cliche, but French is such a turn on for her.

Patty nods, tossing her phone to Abby. "Erin's right!"

Holtz winks at Erin. "Venez-vous ici souvent?"

 _Come here often?_

Erin giggles at the pick up line that was Holtz's first sentence to her and then awkwardly hides behind her hand.

"I think we all got that one." Abby laughs. "I'd know that line anywhere, I hear it often enough. I'm next to pick, right?" She thinks for a moment before choosing. "Truth." The bottle lands on Patty.

"What's the best date you've ever been on?"

"Probably that one time in middle school where this boy I liked took me to an observatory. I haven't dated much since, no interest." She leans back, stretching her legs out. "Your turn, Erin."

"Dare." She doesn't need to think twice, and doesn't want to take a chance on Holtz asking her something she doesn't want to answer. She removes a brick closer to the top, never one for taking chances in this game. "Shot and a kiss." She happily gulps down her mixed drink, letting the bubbliness wash over her.

"Embrassez-moi, je parle français."

 _Kiss me, I speak French._

Erin blinks slowly and clenches her fists, disguising the shiver that runs down her spine, hoping Holtzmann didn't catch it.

Holtz did, nothing slips past her. She makes intense eye contact with Erin, practically purring, "Es-tu être excité par français?"

Erin blushes bright red, shakily taking a sip from her glass.

"What was that?" Patty looks from Holtz who has a satisfied smirk on her face, to Erin who is desperately avoiding Holtz's gaze.

Erin clears her throat. "She just said I should have told her I spoke french sooner." It's a flat out lie and she knows they didn't buy it, but she'll never tell them what Holtz actually said.

 _Does French turn you on?_

Holtzmann's uncanny ability to pick up on subtleties always astounds her.

Erin looks at Holtz out of the corner of her eye. She is frowning, brow furrowed, and obviously displeased Erin didn't translate it correctly.

Erin quickly pecks Patty on the lips to end her turn. "Okay, Patty, truth or dare?"

"Dare, girl I want to drink." The wooden brick instructs Patty to do a shot for every person playing. "Any last French words, Holtzy?"

"Non je ne," she says with a shake of her head and a glance at Erin.

 _No I don't._

"And with that, you have completed your first dare," Patty says.

Holtz bows at the waist, gesturing dramatically. "I choose truth." She spins the bottle and it lands on Abby.

"What did you say to Erin that made her blush so hard?"

Erin jerks her head up from her drink that she'd been staring at, eyes going wide. Holtz wouldn't answer that, would she? It obviously embarrassed her and Holtz has never been the type of person to humiliate people on purpose, but she does like seeing Erin flustered. She guesses it'll depend on how revealing Holtz is feeling.

Holtz pours herself a shot of Fireball and downs it with a gasp.

"Slap or kiss! Slap or kiss!" Abby and Patty chant.

"Jillian Holtzmann!" Patty shouts, "Leave the room, so we may decide your fate."

Holtzmann looks scandalized at the outburst from the two women, before she swaggers out of the living room.

"I don't want to slap her," Abby says adamantly. "But I really wanted to know what she said!"

Erin chokes slightly, coughing loudly. "That means you're going to kiss her." She doesn't know if she can watch them kiss.

"Mhm. Oh Holtzy!" Abby calls sweetly, standing up, and beckoning her back in.

Abby steps up to her, eyes flickering down to Holtz's lips before leaning in and planting a closed mouth kiss on her lips.

Erin squeezes her glass until her knuckles turn white, downing the rest of the drink in one go, a jolt going straight to her stomach at the sight of Abby's hand cupping Holtz's cheek. Their kiss seems to go on forever, but in reality it only lasted three seconds or so.

They separate with a loud pop from Holtz and she flops to the ground.

Abby fans her face, pretending to be flustered. "Woah. Erin, you better jump Holtzmann before someone else does because _damn_ that was a good kiss."

Erin narrows her eyes. "Are you hitting on her for me?"

"Are you admitting you want to hit on me?" Holtzmann shoots back quickly, laughing at the horrified expression on Erin's face.

"No!" She ducks her head, pouring herself a shot of vodka. She said that entirely too fast.

Abby picks dare, but the jenga brick she pulls ends up being more of a dare for everyone because it directs everyone who has kissed a member of the same gender to take a shot for how many people they've kissed. It even included a handy chart. 1 shot for 1-5 people, 2 shots for 6-10, and 3 shots for 11+. Patty, Erin, and Abby all do 1 shot, while Holtz does 3.

At this point Abby and Patty are sloppy drunk from doing shots and sipping mixed drinks between them. Holtz is in her 'no-inhibition-science-flowing-freely' stage and has somehow managed to find a pencil and paper in their messy living room, scribbling equations, blueprints, and other things Erin won't admit she doesn't know. Erin has landed somewhat roughly in between those two stages, though she's still not able to relax. She hasn't reached slurring yet, but isn't sure whether she'll remember tonight tomorrow.

The way Holtz is currently holding the pencil to her mouth, teeth biting down on it gently as she thinks, is doing things to Erin she doesn't want to admit.

"Earth to Erin!" Patty shouts, waving a hand in front of her face. "It's your turn, baby."

"Frick, okay, uhh, dare."

Holtzmann tips her head. "She doesn't even curse when she's drunk!"

"I don't curse. It's not lady-like." Erin hiccups loudly.

"FUCK lady-like!" Holtzmann laughs gleefully, changing positions so she can sit with her legs spread further apart, proving her point.

Erin tries to concentrate, but her hand is shaking hard from all the alcohol, and the tower wobbles precariously. Her heart stops as she reads her dare. "7 minutes in heaven." If her hand was shaky before, then this is like an earthquake.

As she reaches over to spin the bottle, she nearly launches it across the room. It seems like as the bottle slows down, her heart rate speeds up, until it stops completely and she can feel her heart pounding in her throat. This is what she was trying to avoid by picking dare.

It landed on Holtzmann.

She can see Holtzmann swallow thickly as her eyes roam Erin's body, gaze more consuming than Erin has ever seen it.

Abby whistles as Patty cheers, confiscating their phones, and telling them that they will be collected when the 7 minutes are over.

Holtz boldly grabs Erin's hand, lacing their fingers together, and leads her over to the coat closet, shoving her inside with a push to her back. Erin clumsily pushes the coats and various ghostbusting equipment out of the way to make room for both of them as Holtz shuts the door. They shift around, a hand brushes against Erin's chest, a knee slips between Holtzmann's, and then Erin sighs loudly as she finds the string dangling from the light bulb.

The light blinks on, the hum of electricity and the in-out of their breath, the only sound.

Holtz leans away from Erin, pressing against the back wall of the closet for balance. "We don't have to kiss, if you don't want. S'not like they'd know the difference with how drunk they are." Holtz gestures with her head in the direction of the living room. "We can just talk, or… not."

It is very cramped and very hot and they are very close.

Holtz bites her lip, working it delicately between her teeth.

Without even knowing what she's doing, Erin brings her hand up to her own face, her fingers brushing over her lips as the memory of Holtz and Abby kissing floats into her mind. She can feel her pulse pounding in her entire body and is convinced Holtzmann can too. Why else would Holtz be looking at her so strangely.

"But kissing might be nice, you can pretend I'm Kevin or something." Holtzmann references Erin's comments about their assistant.

For whatever reason it makes Erin mad. Madder than she's been at Holtz before. Almost madder than she's been at anyone before, alcohol blowing everything out of proportion.

"Are you crazy?! Why would I want to think about someone else while I'm kissing you?!" Erin takes a step closer. "What kind of a person does that?! Someone who doesn't give a crap about the person they're kissing, that's who. Is that what you think I'm like?" She shoves a finger into Holtz's shoulder. "I'm not that kind of person! When I'm kissing you, I don't want to think about anything other than you and the way you feel! Kissing should be about making the other person happy just as much as making yourself happy!" At some point after she started screeching, her face ended up only a few inches away from Holtzmann's.

She can feel Holtz's quick, shallow, breaths against her neck, a stark contrast to Erin's heavy breathing; can only imagine Holtz's heart is pounding as hard as hers is.

Erin freezes, eyes darting all around Holtz's face, unsettled by Holtz's unwavering eye contact. There's something so...unnerving about the way Holtzmann looks at her sometimes, as if she's imagining the way you'd look screaming her name. It's a quality exclusive to Holtz, the way she can make you squirm with just one look. Erin can't take it anymore. She can't take the constant worry, and wonder, and lack of understanding _just how Jillian Holtzmann makes her feel so fucked_.

Erin pounces and it surprises her as much as it surprises Jillian.

She slides both hands up into Holtz's hair, tugging her to her lips, kissing her open mouthed and sloppy. Holtz doesn't react at first, too stunned by something so unlike Erin, but then she presses her body into Erin's. _Yes._ This is what she needed. Erin's back hits the door with a dull thud and she lets out a moan that's punctuated with Holtzmann's tongue in her mouth. The way Holtz jumps right in has Erin all worked up. With each stroke of tongue against tongue, she gets a little closer to understanding. Each caress maps her out. Each mark sucked into skin paints a clearer picture.

Holtz is acting like Erin is a nuclear charger and Holtz is a weapon about to explode with just the slightest touch. It's like nothing she's ever experienced before. Erin hastily pulls off her glasses, tucking them into the pocket of a random coat for safe keeping. She has a theory about her, but all good theories have to be tested. She pushes Holtz's green shopcoat off her shoulders as she moves back. Frenzied hands find their way under Erin's shirt, caressing her stomach and hips. Holtz is wearing her 'one of the guys' shirt, the one she turned into a muscle tank with the unevenly cut arm holes that exposes the side of her bra… or at least it would if she was wearing one at the moment. Erin runs her hand down the side of her breasts. Holtzmann's skin feels so creamy in comparison to her lightly calloused hands.

Holtzmann moans out a high pitched, "Oh." Spurred on by Erin, she sucks a mark into her neck, teeth scraping and tongue licking.

Erin moans breathily and shoves a leg between Holtz's, pressing her thigh upwards as payback. She feels so good, this feels so good. Holtz grinds down with a sharp inhale and a growl. Hypothesis proved. Erin tosses her head back against the door, using it to support her body as Holtz hastily undoes the buttons on Erin's blouse and licks a line from her jaw to her chest, kissing the tops of each breast. Pressing her hips forward into Holtz's, Erin searches for some relief from the building desire. She wishes she could communicate how wonderful Holtz is, how hot and sexy and _fucking Beautiful_ she is, but all Erin can manage is a gasp that turns into a long moan as Holtzmann digs her fingernails into Erin's hips. Her fingers are gripping her so hard she's sure they'll leave bruises.

"Time's up!" Abby shouts, throwing the door open and screaming as Erin comes crashing to the floor, Holtz on top of her.

"Woahhhhhh," Abby draws out. "Erin, that's a new look."

They stand up and Erin glances down at herself. Hickies are peppered across the top of her breasts, shirt askew, and hair sticking out in every direction. She clumsily attempts to button up her shirt, addled by the many vodka shots. Holtz, on the other hand, looks no more undone than normal, with the exception of her missing shopcoat and glasses.

"Erin, where'd you put my glasses?" Holtz pats her pockets, coming up empty

Erin grimaces sheepishly. "I… don't remember. In a jacket? We'll find them t'morrow."

Holtz leans on Erin, drunkenly patting her back. "That's okay, baby."

Erin inhales deeply, her body still humming from Holtz's touch, incredibly frustrated by not getting any relief. She frowns slightly. How is Holtz looking so unphased by their intense makeout session. The only thing giving it away is her chest heaving in a way that Erin, in her highly drunken state, has no problem admitting makes the ache between her legs even more painful.

The three girls return to the living room, Erin trailing behind slowly, one hand pressed to her lips in thought.

There's no way she'll remember this tomorrow, so now is the only chance she'll get to memorize the way Holtzmann's lips tasted like salt and raspberry chapstick, or the curve of her breasts against Erin's hand while braless. She likely won't get another shot to explore the delicate plains of her stomach or make her just as breathless as she made Erin. If she's lucky, Holtzmann won't remember either, although Erin half wishes she will.

They return to the jenga circle, only to find Patty passed out next to a mostly empty bottle of tequila. Erin and Holtz take their phones back from the table and Erin taps the home button, trying to focus on the floating numbers. 1:36AM.

"That was a lot longer than 7 minutes, Abby!" Erin slurs, the alcohol finally catching up to her.

Now it's Abby's turn to look sheepish. "Patty and I got distracted by alc- _hic_ -alcohol," Abby hiccups.

They were in there for almost 20 minutes. She guesses that old saying is true. Drinking makes the time fly when you're fun sober...or however it goes.

"Maybe we should… go to bed," Holtz starts, trailing off in the middle as she loses her train of thought. "I don't feel so hot."

She's right. There's a distinctly green tinge to Holtzmann and not just because of the radioactive glow coming from one of her 'babies' she's standing next to. Erin also glances to Patty. Holtz can at least go upstairs to bed. There's nothing they can do for Patty except throw a blanket over her, leave a trashcan and a bottle of water nearby, and hope she doesn't get anything on the carpet again.

Erin yawns, nodding along to whatever Holtz is saying now, not fully listening and more concerned with what she's going to do about still being painfully turned on.

"Gnight," Erin mumbles, starting towards the stairs.

There's a gentle puff of hot air against the back of her neck and then she feels Holtz's hand slip under her shirt at the small of her back, guiding her up the stairs and to her bedroom door.

"Just wanted to make sure you got to your room oki-doki, with you being so drunk and all."

Erin snorts. Holtz is significantly more drunk than Erin.

As they reach Erin's room, Holtz practically tackles her, throwing her arms around Erin and burying her face in the crook of her neck. "Gnight, baby."

Erin sputters, arms automatically coming up to encircle Holtz, as she chokes out another, "Good night," suppressing a shiver as Holtz's lips skim across her neck as she breaks their embrace.

Erin turns the doorknob, stopping in the doorway to watch the sway in Holtzmann's hips as she walks down the hall to her room, but Erin slips into her own room before Holtz can catch her staring.

 **** **She strips and drops into a heavy sleep as soon as her head hits the pillow.**


End file.
